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lyrics: J. Morse © 1983 I - Peasant How long have you been on your knees, willing to please? Subservient, obedient to the tyrant ready to seize all you own How long will you stand for the pain? Tears fall like rain From your eyes, from the skies, You have so much more to gain, but you just moan Can't you see, there's more to life than tilling the soil And paying taxes to nobles who're too good to toil But you can't say a thing, you just stay in your fields Held back by the sword the captain wields With your hoe as your shield Crawling in the mire of the fields you plow, you make your last vow You can dream of what can seem to be so far away now, some summer morn You need something to take you away to another day But where's it at? The aristocrat can do as he may, just because he was born Can't you see, there's more to life than an obsequious bow But you've never been taught to rebel, you don't know how So you wait for the moment when the lord says to come home Till then you slave in the soil and the loam, your mind on the roam. . . II - Bourgoise You work hard to be a success But what it will get you, you can only guess Most all you accomplish through your long day The king and the nobles come and carry away How's a man to support a family When the government's on his back It's time to take over the country So you can have all you lack You have a profession that's going nowhere The people hovering above you don't even care That they're breaking your back to fill their greedy palms Soon you'll be standing on a corner, asking for alms "It's time for a radical change The king and his nobles are through We'll gather support for our cause Tell the peasants what to do..." III - Aristocrat Look down upon the crowd Their cries are growing louder Why do they act this way? Don't we treat them very well? Protect them from the foreign hell? They act as if they've got something to say What's all this about the Rights of Man? We're kind, we give them all we can All we ask is that they stay and work our land What's all this about freedom and equal say? Do they not trust in the ancient and holy way? Work the land and give us our rightful pay We don't understand Why do they want the land You say the Bastille fell We've been plunged into hell. . . IV - Guillotine Louis, Louis Marie, Marie Cry for those who lost their lives To save the Revolution Sing the praise of those who died To make a contribution. . . |